Konta, who has rocketed up the rankings this year, attended the draw ceremony for the showpiece season-ender on Friday having reached number eight on the WTA's Road to Singapore list.
Thousands of miles away at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, however, Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova was battling to sneak ahead of her and grab the final place in the eight-player tournament that starts with round-robin action on Sunday.
Kuznetsova beat Ukraine's Elina Svitolina 6-1 6-7 (2) 6-4 and should the top seed win Saturday's final against Julia Goerges or Daria Gavrilova she will deny Konta a dream debut in the tournament although the Briton would stay on as an alternate.
Konta, voted the WTA's most improved player in 2016 after becoming the first British female since 1983 to crack the top 10, arrived in Singapore this week after recovering from a stomach strain.
At Friday's draw, Konta or Kuznetsova were placed in the same group as 2015 winner Agnieszka Radwanska, Karolina Pliskova and French Open champion Garbine Muguruza.
The other group consists of world number one Angelique Kerber, Simona Halep, Madison Keys and Dominika Cibulkova.
American Serena Williams is missing because of injury.
(Editing by Tony Jimenez)
